Sweet and Sour Carrot Jelly

A great all purpose condiment for just about any spicy meal, but this shines with bolani.

Prep time: 1/2 cocktail

½ pound carrots

½ cup apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup white sugar

1/2-1 jalapeño pepper, chopped (optional, if you want to add some heat)

½ tsp coriander,

¼ tsp dried, ground ginger

1 cup water

2 tsp cornstarch

Combine everything except corn starch in food processor. Puree well. Transfer to a small saucepan on medium heat and bring to boil. Once boiling, whisk the cornstarch with 1 TBSP water in a small dish with a fork until cornstarch is dissolved. Stir it into the saucepan. Continue boiling a few more minutes, or until you have reached the consistency of applesauce. Remove from heat and serve chilled or at room temperature.

Cilantro Chutney (Chutni Gashneez)

Cilantro chutney along with garlic-mint yogurt, is served with virtually every meal in Afghanistan. This condiment is served on top of just about everything from bolani to kebabs.

There are many variations, but here’s a really good, straightforward preparation.

1 big bunch cilantro, coarsely chopped 
3 garlic cloves 
1 jalepeno pepper, chopped 
1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
3 TBSP lemon juice
3/4 tsp salt 
2 tsp sugar

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process until you get a uniform consistency. Now the taste test: like any good pesto, you should be able to perfectly taste each flavor: lemon, walnuts, pepper/garlic, cilantro, salt, and a slight sweetness. In addition to each flavor having equal weight, they should blend harmoniously into one superb-tasting sauce. Because your salt, jalapenos, lemons, or other items may vary in strength or size from batch to batch, remember that the taste test is what tells you you’re done; not the instructions.

Once you have made any necessary flavor adjustments, chill before serving.

Ridiculously Delicious Kadu Bouranee

This is another of my favorite Afghan dishes. Served with challaw (Afghan spiced rice) and topped with garlic mint yogurt sauce, this sweet-savory dish is easy and stupid-delicious. If sugar pie pumpkins are available, they make a great alternative to butternut squash. Eat often and love life!

Prep time: 2 cocktails

6 TBSP butter or oil, divided

3 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1-2-inch cubes

1 large onion, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced

1 TBSP tomato paste

2 tsp ground turmeric

2 tsp ground coriander

3 TBSP white sugar

2 cups vegetable stock

1 batch Challaw 

½ batch Afghani Garlic Mint Yogurt 

Melt half the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the butternut squash cubes and sauté about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it becomes a browned—but not burned—on the outsides. Remove from heat and set aside.

Melt the other half of the butter in a Dutch oven over medium heat.  Add the onion and sauté until golden brown, about 10 minutes.  Add the garlic and ginger and sauté another 1 minute. Now stir in the tomato paste, turmeric, coriander, sugar, veggie stock and bring to a boil.

Once everything reaches a boil, add the squash and reduce to a simmer and let cook down, uncovered, until the squash is tender, but not mushy—about 30 minutes. Stir occasionally, but be careful not to mash the squash. If all the liquid cooks off before the squash is done, add a bit more stock or water to prevent the squash from burning.

Serve over warm challaw and top with a good portion of yogurt sauce. You can garnish with minced fresh parsley, cilantro, or mint, if available. 

Brown Rice Challow

Challow, a spiced Afghan rice, is usually made with basmati. I prefer brown, but you can use pretty much anything. 

Prep time: 1/4 cocktail (not including baking time)  

1 cup brown rice

1 tsp salt

2 TBSP oil

2 tsp cardamom

2 tsp whole cumin seeds

Preheat oven to 350.

Put 3 1/2 cups water in a Dutch oven or other saucepan that's oven safe and has a snug lid. Bring to boil.

While you're waiting for the water to boil. Soak rice in a bowl full of cold water a minute and work it well with your fingers. Drain, rinse, and repeat a couple times.

Once the pot of water is boiling, add your strained rice. Bring to boil, uncovered and boil 10 minutes.

Stir in remaining ingredients and put lid on and put the pot into the oven. Bake about an hour until the water is all absorbed and the rice is tender.

After you remove it, let it rest for a few minutes and fluff with a fork before serving.

Afghani Garlic-Mint Yogurt

An all-purpose topping that goes great on any Afghani food or is good as a dip. If you want to try making Greek yogurt yourself, here's how you do it.

16 ounces plain Greek yogurt (full fat or lowfat only—no nonfat)

2 medium cloves garlic, minced

1 TBSP dried mint

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

Combine everything into a bowl and stir well. Let sit in refrigerator, covered, at least an hour before serving. 

Walnut-Gorgonzola Ravioli with Sun-Dried Tomato Sage Pesto

We had my special ladyfriend's relatives over for dinner a few nights ago and made this little gem. They liked it so much, I thought they were going to move in. I share this recipe so that you too can get on the good side with your in-laws. Served with a Cesar salad, good bread, and excessive volumes of red wine, there's no way you can end the night not a hero.

While you don't need any special equipment, an inexpensive crank-powered pasta roller is a big help. Well worth the investment. A $5 ravioli cutter is also a great investment, but a pizza slicer or even a sharp knife will substitute just fine--you just won't have the fun crimped edges.

Note that this pesto is also really great on pasta in place of traditional basil pesto if you’re looking for something new. And the cheese filling goes really well in lasagna recipes.

Prep time: 3 cocktails

Pesto:

2 cups rehydrated, drained sun dried tomatoes

¾ cup walnuts

1 cup fresh sage leaves, lightly packed

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 1/4 tsp salt

1 clove garlic

1 tsp pepper

½ cup water

½ cup grated high-quality Parmesan Reggiano

Filling:

¾ cup ricotta (part skim is fine)

½ cup grated mozzarella        

2/3 cup crumbled gorgonzola

½ cup grated Parmesan Reggiano 

2 eggs

1 cup walnuts

3/4 tsp salt

1 TBSP fresh basil or Italian flat-leaf parsley, finely minced (optional)

1 TBSP shallot, finely minced (optional)

Dough:

2 large eggs

1 TBSP Water (a bit more if you're at altitude, like me)

Pinch salt

1 3/4 cup white flour

Additional flour for rolling

Combine all pesto ingredients in food processor and process until smooth. Add additional salt to adjust flavor and additional water if the consistency to too thick. Transfer to another container and set in refrigerator.

Wash and dry food processor. Add all the filling ingredients, except for basil or parsley and shallot and process until it makes a totally smooth cheesy filling. Stir in the herbs and shallot and set aside.

In large mixing bowl, mix all dough ingredients except flour. Then, as you continue to mix, gradually add flour. You want a cohesive ball that isn't sticky. If you're not there, add water or flour as needed. Remove dough from bowl and roll as thinly as possible on a floured surface without making holes with rolling pin or pasta roller. Thickness of 1/8 inch or less is ideal. If you don’t have a lot of counter space you’ll probably have to break the dough into a few smaller batches for rolling.

Now you’re ready to assemble the raviolis. Cut rolled dough into 4-by-3-inch rectangles (a pizza slicer works great for this, if you’ve got one handy). Brush edges with a little bit of water. Place a heaping tablespoon (or so) of filling in middle. Fold the ravioli over long-ways and tightly pinch it shut with your fingers. The raviolis should close well unless there’s too much filling—adjust ravioli size or filling amount, if necessary. As you set aside the prepared raviolis, note that they’re pretty sticky, so it’s a good idea to set them on a floured surface and, if you stack them, to separate layers with wax paper.

(Note that if you use a pasta roller and have pretty uniform-shaped pasta sheets, it's faster to just take 1 full pasta sheet, put dollops of filling a few inches apart, brush the spaces in between with water, then put another sheet on top, seal each with your fingertips, and cut.)

To cook, boil the raviolis for 5-7 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon. Note that after cooking, leftover  raviolis will stick together in the fridge, so only cook as many as you need. Any uncooked raviolis will be just fine in the refrigerator for several days (separated with wax paper) until you cook them.

Serve topped with pesto and additional fresh-grated Parmesan! Eat!

Artichoke, Goat Cheese, and Roasted Red Pepper Dip

Let's face it: most artichoke dips are pretty shitty. They tend to lack any flavor or personality besides maybe salt. But this version has a great combination of fresh herbs, cheesiness, artichoke tang and sweetness provided by the roasted peppers. It's pretty rad, if I say so myself. It'll make you, along with the spiked eggnog, the hit of the holiday party.

Prep time: 1 cocktail

2 medium bell peppers

10 ounces cherve goat cheese

2 14-ounce cans artichoke hearts, drained (don’t use marinated type)

½ cup dry white wine

½ tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste

2 small cloves garlic

2 TBSP white balsamic vinegar

1 tsp salt

Scant 1 tsp dried thyme

Several good grinds of black pepper (or more to taste)

½ cup parsley, finely minced

Preheat oven to broil.

Put the peppers in or over a foil-lined pan and roast until the tops get nice and blackened—about 15-20 minutes. Flip and repeat. When nice and blackened, remove the peppers from the oven and place in a paper or plastic bag. Seal tightly and set aside until the peppers have cooled enough to handle. Remove stem, seeds, and skin and discard (this is easier under running cold water). Chop up a bit.

Combine peppers and all other ingredients, except parsley in food processor. Process well, until you have a nice smooth consistency. Transfer to a saucepan and stir in parsley. Over medium heat, stir constantly until the dip reaches a boil. Serve warm with pita chips or crackers.

Quanta Firfir

After being a vegetarian blog for 2 1/2 years, this is the first-ever meat recipe.

Why? Because no single food is more uniquely, awesomely, authentically Ethiopian than quanta firfir. Not only that, but it's really uncommon here--even among Ethiopian restaurants.

When I first moved to Ethiopia, I hated this dish. Injera topped with injera, I used to call it. My logic was that it was like having a burrito stuffed with old tortilla bits. But as the months passed, I came to to love this big, scrappy mess of a meal. I eventually found myself manically craving quanta firfir when I was forced the indignity of going a couple days without. This dish, usually eaten at breakfast, is a particularly potent hangover cure.

Note that we're not fucking around here. This meal isn't for amateurs. It's easy to make, but you need to plan ahead, and you have to love, love, LOVE injera.

Before you can even make this recipe, you need to have some old injera on hand. Take that injera and tear it into bite-size pieces (roughly 1-2 inch squares). Set it all out on a cooling rack or some other place where it can dry completely. You'll also need to make a batch of the stuff fresh for this meal. It's a lot of legwork, but you can also pick the stuff up easily enough if you live near an Ethiopian restaurant or grocer. (Tell the proprietor you're making quanta firfir and you'll probably get invited to their house for the next holiday. Like I said, this isn't amateur shit.)

Prep time: 1 cup of coffee, preferably Ethiopian Yirgachefe

2 medium onions, chopped
1/4 cup vegetable oil
6 cloves garlic
2 TBSP berbere
2 cups water
2-3 ounces beef jerky, chopped into 1/4-inch pieces (use only plain jerky; not anything flavored, like teriyaki)
1 tsp salt
3 big handfuls fully-dried injera that has been torn up into bite-size pieces
A couple hard-boiled eggs, peeled (optional)
Fresh injera for serving

Heat a dry saucepan over medium heat. Add onions and sweat them, without any oil, until they become translucent, about 5 minutes.

Add oil and saute another couple minutes. Add half the garlic and saute yet another couple minutes.

Add berbere and continue to saute. The mixture will start to stick. When it does, add a couple TBSP of the water. Repeat this process until you only have 3/4 of a cup of water left. Then add the water, the rest of the garlic, beef jerky, and salt and immediately remove the pan from the heat and let rest for 60 seconds.

Now stir in the injera chips VERY GENTLY, so as not to break them. Continue to stir gently until all the liquid is absorbed. The injera should be pretty spongy, so if it isn't, stir in a bit more water.

Serve with the eggs on top and, well, more injera (fresh injera this time). 

Truly Authentic Mesir Wot

A few years ago, I posted a really great mesir wot recipe. But after I spent the last couple years living in Ethiopia, I realized that while awesome, the recipe wasn't quite authentic. With the help of my good Ethiopian friend Ruti, I came up with this recipe that is more full-flavored and dead-on authentic. It's identical to the mesir wot I used to order at the little food shack across from my house.

Note—it’s important to NOT use a non-stick pan for this. The recipe involves scalding the lentils to the pot bottom and using a Teflon-coated pot will ruin the coating and ensure that you end up with a lot of Teflon flakes in your dinner. Use cast-iron, ceramic-lined, or a plain metal pot, like all old Ethiopian women do.

Prep time: 3 cocktails

4 TBSP oil
2 medium onions, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup red lentils
½ tsp ground cardamom
3 TBSP berbere
1 tsp salt or to taste
A pinch or two of sugar (optional)

Heat your large non-nonstick sauce pan, over medium to med-high heat with just the onions in it; no oil yet. (The idea is to sweat some of the moisture out before adding the oil and other ingredients.) Stir the onions almost constantly while doing this. Sweat them for several minutes, not allowing them to stick to the bottom, until they've become translucent. Add oil and sauté a few more minutes, stirring frequently. Add garlic, sauté a few additional minutes.

Now add the cardamom and berbere, as well as a couple tablespoons water. Reduce your heat a notch and stir very frequently for about 10 minutes, adding an additional splash of water if necessary to avoid sticking.

Add ¼ cup of water and lentils. Sauté, stirring with a metal spatula almost constantly, until water is absorbed. Continue adding water about ¼ cup at a time. The idea is that you want the lentils to scorch to the bottom a bit each time but not burn. You then scrape the caramelized lentil gunk into the rest of the wot to give it a sweet, nutty flavor. Continue doing this until the lentils are fully cooked. Then top off with enough water to give it a nice, wot consistency. Adjust seasoning an add salt and a bit of sugar, if necessary.

Serve with injera and other delicious Ethiopian vittles.

Two Words That Will Change Your Thanksgiving: Stuffing Tamales

If you want your Thanksgiving to be an absolute slam dunk this week, serve this. You could burn the turkey, forget the pies, and substitute sand and shaving cream for the green bean casserole, but as long as you make these tamales, people will rave about how good dinner was for the next five years. I'm serious about this.

This a modified version from Tamales 101: A Beginners Guide to Making Traditional Tamales. Which is the most remarkable tamale cookbook I've ever seen. Go buy two copies after you make this recipe. 

You serve these tamales with good ol’ fashioned gravy as the sauce. SO GOOD!

Note that the fruit (apples and cranberries) are optional here... In normal stuffing, I'd actually think the the addition of fruit would be an abomination. But for some reason with these tamales, they add a wonderful bright touch when you factor in the masa and smothering of gravy. So if you want to be a tad adventurous, definitely keep the apples and cranberries in (you can even double the cranberry quotient or experiment with date pieces or dried mango bits in place of cranberries if you want!). But if you are a staunch traditionalist with your stuffing flavor profile, you'll be just fine omitting the sweet stuff.  

If you prefer, you can omit the fruit and opt for vegan sausage. Beyond spicy Italian is my preferred sausage. Just cook it as the instructions specify and crumble coarsely after it has cooled. If you do that, add the sausage right before you mix the stuffing together with your hands. 

Prep time: 4 cocktails (but can be made weeks ahead of time and frozen)

1 package dried corn husks

3/4 batch Masa from my tamale recipe

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter (don’t use margarine or oil)

1 bunch celery, leaves included, chopped finely

2 large onions, chopped

6 cloves garlic, minced

3 TBSP fresh sage, minced

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 tsp salt

1 tsp freshly ground pepper

1 pound mushrooms, chopped

1 apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped

1/2 cup dried cranberries (or golden raisins)

1 cup pine nuts, toasted

8 cups day-old bread, (about 12 slices), cut into ½-inch squares and toasted

2 cups veggie stock

Gravy for serving

Start by soaking the corn husks in a big bowl. Submerge them in hot water and let them soak for at least a half hour. You’ll want at least 50 husks. You’ll also need something heavy to set on top of the husks so they remain submerged. I use a brick.

In large pot, melt the butter on medium heat. Add celery and onions. Increase heat to high and bring to a fast simmer, stirring constantly. Now, reduce to medium low, cover and cook for 5-10 minutes stirring often and checking in.

Once the celery is translucent, add garlic, sage, thyme, salt and pepper. Cook uncovered 5 more minutes. Add mushrooms, apple (if using), cranberries (if using), and pine nuts. Cook 5 more minutes and remove from heat.  Let cool until it’s cool to the touch.

Now combine the celery mixture and bread (as well as the sausage, if using). Toss gently but thoroughly with your hands. Then add the stock ½ cup at a time, tossing the whole time.

Return this mixture to the stovetop and cook 5-8 minutes on medium heat, or until heated through. Now you’re ready to make the tamales.

It’s now time to assemble the tamales. This is the most time-consuming part of the operation and is a lot smoother if you can recruit a couple assistants and make an assembly line.

Take a fully-soaked corn husk and figure out which is the smoothest side. Set on the counter with smooth side facing up. The stuffing amount will vary depending on the size of the corn husks. Spread a thin layer of the masa dough on the husk, leaving about ½-inch space to the edges. Make sure there are no gaps or holes in the coating. Now spoon a bit of filling on top, stopping a bit short of the dough’s edge.

Roll the tamale cigarette-style. When you roll it up, make sure you the dough’s edges meet to enclose all the filling. Tie the two ends securely with the string. If you don’t have string, you can tear strips off soaked corn husks to do the job, but this takes a bit longer and the husk strips are easy to tear when tightly pulled.

At this point, you can freeze any tamales you don’t plan on cooking right away. Just stack in a large Tupperware or zip lock bag and place in freezer. You can later prepare frozen tamales by following the steaming directions (but add a couple extra minutes). Frozen tamales can also be steamed inside their husks right in the microwave (though most purists would pooh-pooh the practice). Microwave cooking times vary on size and number cooked, but typically ranges from 3-10 minutes.

To steam right away, use a bamboo or metal steamer. Stack the tamales so there’s lots of circulation space. Cover and cook for about an hour or until the masa gets nice and firm and doesn’t want to stick to the wrapper when you open it up. Don’t forget to check the water level occasionally! Steaming time varies from 20 minutes to 1+ hours, depending on tamale thickness, whether they are frozen, and how tightly they’re packed in the steamer. A probe thermometer is helpful -- you can pierce the tamales to see when they are done. I like to get an internal temperature of 170-175F. 

Remove from husk and serve slathered with gravy!